Sub-Saharan Migrants: Moroccan Hooligans Set Our Camps On Fire

Ahlam Ben Saga is a Cultural Studies graduate from university Mohammed V of Literature and Humanities in Rabat.

Jul 9, 2018

Rabat- After a fire broke out Sunday morning in camps of sub-Saharan migrants in Fez, another fire erupted a few hours later in Casablanca camps.

Sunday evening, July 8, fire consumed the belongings and camps of sub-Saharan migrants in a park in front of Ouled Ziane bus station in Casablanca, following gas bottle explosions.

The camps were home to dozens of undocumented sub-Saharan African migrants.

Fortunately, security forces managed to evacuate the area and extinguish the fire. Like the first fire in the migrants’ camps near Fez’s ONCF train station, no injuries were sustained.

The fire in Fez resulted in the damage of nearly 50 informal shelters used by migrants.

Authorities have not yet revealed the causes of the fire in Fez and Casablanca. However, some sub-Saharan migrants claimed that drug-addicted “hooligans” in the region have tried many times to set their camps on fire.

“Those unsober hooligans come to our camps, but we don’t chase them away because we don’t have the right to because it’s their country,” a migrant said to Moroccan news press, Hespress.

“We are strangers here, so we can’t bother them,” he added.

Last Sunday was not the first day to witness such incidents, especially near the Ouled Ziane bus station.

In November 2017, violent clashes between sub-Saharan migrants and a group of Moroccans broke out in the area, resulting in a fire in the same park.